Property:Lead-in
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This is the text of the lead-in paragraph to a blog entry or other longer article. It may be displayed in lieu of a summary.
- implies: summary -- possibly "lead-in" and "summary" should both be subproperties of something else? "synopsis"? "abstract"?
An email this morning from John Patterson of [http://metmaniac.com MetManiac] reporting that he met with Met management and they have reached an agreement to allow MetManiac to return. [mailto:JVolpe@mail.metopera.org Mr. Volpe] of the Met is responsible for this sanity apparently. It is a nice practice to thank people for their sanity. Insanity reported [[Lawrence Lessig/blog/2002/11/13/0931|here]]. +
At a Tokyo conference on [http://www.rieti.go.jp/en/events/bbl/021025_e.html Intellectual Property Rights of Software and Open Source] (hey, I didn't pick the title), Msft General Counsel Brad Smith makes a strong and repeated defense of "neutrality" in the "software ecosystem." I'm the other half of the presentation, but you can skip my part (especially because my hair is weird and I mumbled alot). +
Declan has a nice [http://news.com.com/2010-1023-971115.html article] which cozies up a bit more to the idea of Geeks (and geeks-wanna-bes, like me) getting more involved in the political process. That's progress from where he was last [http://news.com.com/2010-1071-949275.html summer]. But I was surprised to read his criticism this morning of [http://www.politechbot.com/p-04201.html Amnesty International], which has criticized those who provide technology to enable Chinese censorship. Declan thinks it better for AI to "focus its otherwise good work on the real culprits: The Chinese government." Apparently, while Geeks are unlikely to persuade Washington to call off the war that is killing IT, AI is likely to persuade China to reform civil rights. +
Doug Isenberg, whose [http://www.GigaLaw.com GigiLaw.com] and its companion [http://www.GigaLaw.com/guide/index.html Guide] are a great resource, sent along some more examples of awful wireless marketing. +
ESR has a wonderful analysis of the latest [http://opensource.org/halloween/halloween7.php Halloween] document from (some mole in) Msft. Eric rightly emphasizes substantial good news. Yet though this may be just my nature, I think there is more here to be worried about than the good news suggests. Bottom line: Regardless of our OSS/FSF loyalties, we need to work hard to de-FUDify GPL. +
Here's a company to watch: [http://www.eaccess.net/en/ eAccess], Japan, building the fastest growing aDSL network in the world. They now offer 12 mbs (yes, I mean 12 mps) for $26/m, service within 7 days. And to celebrate their amazing success, on 12/12, they go public.
Talk to the extraordinary president of eAccess, Sachio Semmoto, and he'll tell you the key to eAccess's success: That Japan learned from the United States that access to copper had to be "open." Open access meant new competition; competition has driven prices down, speed up.
It's an amazing thing, competition. Apparently it doesn't work in America, though. Now that the Japanese have profited from the American lesson on regulation, the Americans are retreating. The FCC is moving as quickly as it can to undo open access requirements. +
I'm in Japan for the fall, so I was eager to see [http://www.movielink.com MovieLink] come online (not much on Japanese tv for a language-idiot like myself). As I was told by someone from the other side, MovieLink was intended to remove the "excuse" people had for "stealing" movies online -- once a "cheap, fast system" was offered, there was no good reason not to pay. So does that mean that because [http://www.macnn.com/news.php?id=17302 non-Americans, and non-MicrosoftOS] users don't have a way to access MovieLink, they have an excuse to "steal"?
This should be a general rule: If you don't make it cross-platform compatible, you're not welcome on the Internet. +
I'm trying to think about other things, but when my Dad won't stop sending me articles about the case, it gets hard. Today he sent me this piece by Professor Marci [http://writ.news.findlaw.com/hamilton/20021024.html Hamilton] which concludes that "Mickey has the better of the argument." But I wonder whether Mickey would have the better argument if the real arguments that we make are considered. +
In [http://eldred.cc Eldred v. Ashcroft], we challenged the 1998 Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act. During oral argument, the Court asked whether our rule would affect the 1976 Act's extension. Though this issue had not been briefed, we indicated that it would, but that the Court's own caselaw gave it a way to strike the 1998 Act without striking the 1976 Act.
Justice Bryer in particular was concerned about the effect on contracts entered into in reliance on the 1976 Act. His view seemed to be that there would be "chaos" if those contracts were invalidated.
Jason Schultz of [http://www.fr.com Fish and Richardson] and Deirdre Mulligan of the [http://www.law.berkeley.edu/institutes/bclt/index.html Berkeley Center for Law and Technology] (both of whom worked on a great amicus brief in the case) have now looked at the numbers. Their work is great, and the numbers surprising. See the chart on books [http://cyberlaw.stanford.edu/lessig/blog/archives/1976Act.htm here] and the brief analysis [http://cyberlaw.stanford.edu/lessig/blog/archives/jason.txt here]. Bottom line: a surprisingly small amount of work would be affected. +
In an otherwise great piece for CNET (not run on his list), Declan [http://news.com.com/2100-1023-966595.html reported] last week that Judge Posner expressed skepticism about expanding IP rights, and that he "praised [me] for challenging the CTEA." Declan's a careful reporter, but there is exactly zero chance that Posner said that. Whatever his views about the economic merits of the Sonny Bono Act, federal judges (and especially this seasoned and careful federal judge) don't go around expressing personal views about the merits of pending lawsuits. +
So there's this amazing site (for opera fans at least) called [http://www.metmaniac.com/ MetManiac], which before the lawyers found it, collected lists of Met opera performances from the beginning of the Met. Non-commercial, pure hobby, an extraordinary historical resource, this was the passion of a fan. If you follow the link, though, you'll see the Met lawyers have demanded the site be shut down. (Shhh, but if you follow Brewster's [http://web.archive.org/web/20020127134306/http://www.metmaniac.com/index.html link], you can see what the page was. Don't tell the lawyers, however, as they'll shut that down too.)
Can anyone explain what sense it makes that this fan site, which collects historical facts about an important part of our culture, can be banned? I know the lawyers say "the law makes us do it" -- that trademark law, etc., requires that they police the way other people use their name. But what possible sense does such a law make. And at a time when opera around the world is struggling for resources to build an audience, what possible sense does it make to begin to attack your fans? +
Ted Shelton continues to do web logging credit in his careful and fair [http://www.afterink.com/archive/2002_09_15_home#85452661 reply] to my [http://cyberlaw.stanford.edu/lessig/blog/archives/2002_09.shtml#00041 reply] to ... well you get the picture. And more importantly, he does this space credit for his patience in waiting for a reply. I apologize for the delay, but because his last post has helped me understand and frame this a bit better, the conversation continues. +
Ted Shelton ends his [http://www.afterink.com/archive/archive/2002_10_20_home#85603689 reply] with a nice question: why should the protection for software "be different from copyright property in the first place." That is the issue on which the only real disagreement lies (the other disagreements are illusory, caused I trust by my own lack of clarity). +
Ted's [http://www.afterink.com/archive/2002_10_27_home#85620648 latest] (and his patience with me is wearing, so perhaps sadly, his last), makes a passionate argument against my source code escrow idea, based on the nature of software and the creativity that builds it. I realize I must have somewhere inspired this debate about "nature." I renounce it. No more talk about nature, or the philosophy of creativity. My argument is simple (maybe simplistic, maybe naive) pragmatism. +
The Right on Eldred. See [http://eldred.cc here]. +
The lack of broadband access at hotels drives me nuts. It was bad enough when you had to carry a screw driver and alligator clips. But it's been years since cheap and effective broadband technologies should have been deployed in major hotels. So it was a pleasant surprise when I received spam about [http://promo.starwood.com/wwired/ this] offer from W Hotels -- offering "free" Broadband Internet Access plus telephone calls -- for stupid people, apparently. +
This letter by [http://www.wired.com/news/linux/0,1411,55989,00.html Adam Smith] on behalf of the "New Democrat Network" asking Cybersecurity Czar Richard Clarke to avoid GPLd software deserves a response. Here's a short one by me. And if you agree, then you should respond [http://www.newdem.org/about/staffcontact.shtml here]. +
[http://scriptingnews.userland.com/backissues/2002/10/21#When:2:43:45PM Dave] bravely (given the [http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/000678 excitement] about Mitch's latest [http://blogs.osafoundation.org/mitch/000007.html#000007 contribution]) defends [http://www.docuverse.com/blog/donpark/2002/10/21.html#a103 Don Park]'s concern that the Open Source Applications Foundation will fuel an "erosion in the sense of value for software." That is an important and valid concern, but it needs to be kept in context. +
[http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/000720 Aaron]'s got a reformulation of my escrow-the-code argument which is cleaner, tighter, and more persuasive. We've asked to have him re-present my argument in Eldred, but apparently one must be over 15 to argue in the Supreme Court. (Oops, today's his birthday. We'll have to ask again...) +
a great [http://chronicle.com/free/v49/i14/14a02701.htm article] about one of the most important reasons that this side will win. +